I was thinking of The Prisoner, only this looks like a soccer ball (the texture and faux stitching in the close-up) as opposed to the large translucent sphere that menaced Number Six. Something devilish about the way it bounces along on its merry way, like the toy of a malicious child…what year’s the release of this?

1960. But the ball does behave rather like Rover in The Prisoner, especially in an aerial shot of it splashing into water which I haven’t included here. The dream-paranoia feeling, the open-topped sports car, and even the bongo soundtrack do somehow recall McGoohan’s masterpiece.

Notebook
is a daily, international film publication. Our mission is to guide film lovers searching, lost or adrift in an overwhelming sea of content. We offer text, images, sounds and video as critical maps, passways and illuminations to the worlds of contemporary and classic film. Notebook is a MUBI publication.